France: The Eiffel Tower

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The Eiffel Tower is perhaps one of the most famous symbols of this country’s city of lights. Not only is there the sight of the bustling city, the gently rolling planes and the extraordinary mountain ranges also provide breathtaking views.
Geography
France is located in Western Europe and is bordered by Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg, and Belgium. The Bay of Biscay, English Channel, and the Mediterranean Sea also border it. Because these bodies of water border France, the climate along the coast has mild winters and hot summers, whereas the rest of the country has generally cool winters and mild summers The south near the Mediterranean also attracts forest fires. Other natural hazards include flooding, avalanches, windstorms, and droughts (“France”, 2). With the exception of the northernmost part of the country, France can be described as having four river basins and a plateau (“France”, 1). This means that the majority France has a very calm terrain consisting of mostly flat plains or gently rolling hills. The remainder of the country consists of the Pyrenees Mountains in the south and the Alps in the east.
Paris, the capital of France, is home to approximately 10,410,000 citizens (“France”, 1). Other major cities in the country include Lyon, Nice, Lille, Nantes, Strasbourg, and Bordeaux. Just as the United Stated is divided into fifty states, France is divided into twenty-seven regions (“France”, 2). Each of these regions has their own individual contributions to the country. One of these major contributions includes agriculture. After the United States, France is the world’s largest agricultural producer. As a matter of fact, France accounts for about one-third of all agricultural land within the European Uni...

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...tion here. The sacred ground of the Celts was here, the Romans built a temple to worship Jupiter, a Christian basilica was built in the 6th century, and a Romanesque church was built before the construction of the Notre Dame started. In 1163, Bishop Maurice de Sully began the construction of Notre Dame. He wanted the cathedral to reflect Paris’ status as the capital of France and to be built in the new Gothic style. It was not until 1345 that the cathedral was finally finished. However, during the Revolution, much of the cathedral was damaged. Finally, during the 19th century, the cathedral was restored, thanks to the author Victor Hugo’s book Notre Dame de Paris, which made people realize it was worth repairing (“Notre Dame”).

Literature
Due the Roman occupation of Western Europe, French was one of the five major romance languages to develop from Vulgar Latin.

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